O'Donoughue starts ranting again...

[magickingdom]

"Judicial review granted. 20th April date set.

this will be expensive and lead to further delays so hopefully it will concentrate minds(mainly the ministers) and maybe a solution can be worked out...

[tayto]

The minister might want to keep one on on the election as well ...

[bottlethrower7]

bord na mona, its a facility in an area of Dublin where its badly needed. The GAA were told they could be part of it, then that was reneged on. A facility that the GAA have access to is needed and if John O'Donoghue wants to build us a seperate one, well and good, we'll happily leave the other one for whoever else wants it. Thats not on the cards. Rathcoole isn't touted for that use either, and as tayto says, its not a great location for a lot of south dublin to access. Tallaght on the other hand has a multitude of GAA clubs within a 6-7 mile radius.

This issue has nothing to do with Shamrock Rovers. Its to do with the GAA in that locality pushing for what they were once promised.

Grand, but really I don't see the attraction in this particular site.
By all means put the heat on Zero O'Donoghue and expose his buffoonery, but I'd hope the strategy is to squeeze a better site for GAA purposes, rather than simply to get into the Tallaght site.
I'd hope there is some sort of bargaining going on in the background and that the sole strategy of Dublin GAA is not just to pursue the case via the courts.

At a push, I would have agreed with the original plan of the DCB to take over the site and let Rovers senior team in the odd time, because of the opportunistic value of it and that the GAA would have the running of it. But since then Rovers have been clever in managing to re-invent their image as some sort of caring community based club with all the talk of youth teams and the like playing in the new ground.
The best time to get onto the site was when Rovers were welching on debts, not paying players, falsifying accounts and leaving any unfortunate businesses that dealt with them out of pocket.

bord na mona, a couple of points.

Firstly, Dublin GAA (via the DCB) have expressed an interest in this site for quite a while and offerred to complete the stadium way back when - pretty much when SR were in the doldrums. That was kyboshed by the SR supporters. So, this isn't a new thing as you imply.

Secondly, why would there be background moves going on? This is a 'municipal' facility. This is a community project, for the community. Do you propose a second such project? Or do you think the GAA should go and ask for their own facility to be built solely for them? The latter won't wash. Why waste taxpayers money on 2 municipal projects, when one will do? How can anyone justify the building of a stadium solely for GAA being funded entirely by the government? Even GAA people would have difficulty not seeing the problems with that.

If Shamrock Rovers have succeeded, to a point, in lifting themselves out of the hell-hole they were in, more power to them. If they are now the self-styled community-friendly entity that they claim to be, they should learn that theres more than them in the community. But, as I say, this whole thing has nothing to do with them. Its to do with the GAA getting what was promised them by the government, and which was then reneged on.

I really don't see where the problem with that is. Its as black and white as can be.

[bottlethrower7]

The minister might want to keep one on on the election as well ...

didn't you read the Tribune last weekend? Votes all bought and paid for already....allegedly!!

[magickingdom]

like i said in an earlier post he wont lose his seat. anyone who reads dave hannigans article in last sundays tiribune will see why (tribune.ie). i dont know if it will have an effect anywhere else....

[bottlethrower7]

thanks for reminding me. Hardy, anyone else, here is that article;

LAST June, St Mary's GAA club in Cahirciveen hit the sports capital grants jackpot for the second consecutive year. Eleven months after being awarded 300,000, they discovered another 180,000 was on its way to help with their clubhouse project. In Fianna Fail's official profile of Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism John O'Donoghue, the only sporting allegiance listed is his membership of St Mary's. A former chairman of the club and subscriber to its lotto draw, the department over which he presides gave his hometown team almost half a million in two rounds, not much less than the whole of Longford received in 2005.

A club in O'Donoghue's constituency of Kerry South enjoying this sort of good fortune via the capital grants system is nothing new. Between 2005 and 2006, the residents of Glenbeigh received 295,000 towards the town's sport hall. With a permanent population of just over 300, they essentially snagged the equivalent of almost a grand per person. Nobody is doubting the denizens of St Mary's and Glenbeigh do good work at the coalface of Irish sport. We are merely pointing out that when castigating the GAA about its apparent lack of gratitude for public money received, O'Donoghue isn't exactly speaking from a position of moral strength.

Every club in the country is supposed to have an equal chance of accessing national lottery funds and improving their facilities through the sports capital grants. However, since O'Donoghue took over the sports portfolio in the summer of 2002, the voters in Kerry South have received an outsized share of the pie every single year.

Even in a nation where pork barrel politics are the norm, the abuse of the system has been startling.

In 2006, 14 different sporting concerns in O'Donoghue's constituency managed to snag just over 1.5m between them. This is more than was given to the entire counties of Monaghan, Louth, Offaly, Roscommon and Sligo. It was double the amount granted to counties Carlow, Laois, Westmeath and Leitrim, and near enough treble what poor Longford got. The worst part is that this sort of imbalance was nothing new. In 2005, the people of Kerry South outdrew 18 of the other 25 counties. A year earlier, the half of the county charged with returning him to Dail Eireann in a few weeks time outscored 17 counties. Anybody seeing a pattern here?

The minister's hectoring of Croke Park about the need to understand "the spirit of fairness and generosity" can hardly be taken seriously when his own bailiwick benefits to such a ridiculous extent from his department's largesse. With a failure rate of nearly 50 per cent among applicants for these grants annually, it's remarkable the people of Kerry South outperform their competitors in other counties on such a consistent basis each year.

Even allowing for their reputation as "cute hoors", this is ridiculous.

Are they that much better at filling in the forms and assuring the inquiring civil servants of their bona fides?

Maybe so. How else do we explain that over the past two years O'Donoghue's constituency of nearly 70,000 people received almost the same amount in grants as Meath, a county with a population of twice that many?

A week before he got into such an unseemly row with the GAA about the amount of public money invested in Croke Park, O'Donoghue proved he's a renaissance man whose interests go beyond sport.

He awarded 20 per cent of all funding for cultural festivals this summer to events in, you guessed it, Kerry South.

Of the 1.4m doled out, this incredibly lucky constituency received 280,000.

That sum surpassed how much Dublin got by almost 100,000. We just hope those benefitting from those stipends can do as good a job showing where the cash was spent as the GAA.

Regardless of whether the grants it received were from lottery or exchequer funds, O'Donoghue need only look out the windows of Leinster House to see where the money went on Jones' Road. Pity he can't say the same about others. Rather than picking fights with an association that can account for every cent it has received towards reconstructing its headquarters, the minister might be better served assuring taxpayers that Shamrock Rovers properly used the 2m or so it received towards the completion of the Tallaght Stadium.

In 2001, Slonepark Company Ltd.

For Shamrock Rovers were awarded £500,000 from the sports capital grants. A year later, they did even better with an allocation of 1.3m. If that money was ever drawn down, can the department assure us it was invested in bricks and mortar? If so, how come the facility was never finished? Can they guarantee that none of the cash was squandered on wages rather than infrastructure? The expenditure of 2m in public money seems a far more worthy subject for O'Donoghue's comment than Thomas Davis' interest in playing there.

After he's done with Rovers, the TD for blessed Kerry South might clarify whether Bohemians have to pay back the nearly 750,000 that club received to improve Dalymount Park since 1999.

That money was given to improve a sportsground and, by extension, contribute to the community. Now it's being turned into housing, surely the beneficiaries owe something to the State? Similarly with Shelbourne's 600,000 in grants when Tolka Park goes the way of the apartment blocks.

When it comes to the public funding of sport, there are plenty of issues needing to be addressed by the minister. Croke Park just isn't one of them.

[dublinfella]

bord na mona, its a facility in an area of Dublin where its badly needed.

This issue has nothing to do with Shamrock Rovers. Its to do with the GAA in that locality pushing for what they were once promised.

so why have none of them ever tried to get a facility before this came up? this has never been explained properly.

the reality is that the DoS are adament that the facility is soccer only. they will not fund the hybrid ground. so this drags on another year, and even if TD pull it off and win, Rovers still get built the stadium.

and in the meantime all capital grants in the southside  have been suspended. im sure lucan sarsfields are delighted to have their cheque witheld. i have consistantly questioned the strategic value of suing the hand that feeds. and we will have a minimum of another year of this before Rovers get what they were promised. and of course, no-one does anything to move rathcoole along.

[dubnut]

[bottlethrower7]

so why have none of them ever tried to get a facility before this came up? this has never been explained properly.

I don't understand the question.

10 years ago there was maybe 4 adult teams in my GAA club. Now there are probably 10. The game develops and grows. This growth needs to be facilitated. By facilitated I mean it needs a place where it can be played. At the moment, during the daylight savings months, it wouldn't be uncommon to get 25-30 games a week played in O'Toole Park, the current southside 'equivalent' of Parnell Park. I'm sure being the soccer man that you are that you have no interest in the structures of the games and the various competitions in the various code, so I'll refrain from going there. Suffice it to say, presently the DCB is struggling greatly to get its games played due to lack of places to play them. Just look at all the unfinished competitions every year.

A facility in Tallaght would help greatly.

[tayto]

I cant believe we'rre back to the "they dont really have a need for this facility" arguement, fer jaysus sake.

[Bord na Mona man]

Suffice it to say, presently the DCB is struggling greatly to get its games played due to lack of places to play them. Just look at all the unfinished competitions every year.

The lack of venues is certainly not the biggest problem with competitions not getting finished.

[neilthemac]

lack of referees, and postponment of games for stupid reasons

[Bord na Mona man]

lack of referees, and postponment of games for stupid reasons

and a complete wipe out of fixtures in summer.

[Rossfan]

Now that this nonsense is to be judicially reviewed maybe it's time the Public Accounts Committee or the Comptroller and Auditor General had a look at the whole process.
Council lease site to Soccer club - rent £10,000 per annum. Soccer club move in and start work.
Soccer club gets grant from Dept of sport. no more money but keep site for another 5 years paying NO rent.
Council pays best part of €1.5m to get their own land back ( FFS !!!!).
GAA (Dublin Co Board) offer to build stadium paying for it themselves. Offer refused - Councillors vote to amend pitch size but Minister wont let them.
So far SDCC has spent about €1.9m,Dept of Sport either €1.5m or 1.9m. General view in the SDCC is that €11m will be needed to finish it.
So €14.4m will be spent by Public Authorities when they could have saved themselves €11m by letting the Dub Co Board build the Stadium.
Seems like criminal waste of public funds to me.

[magickingdom]

this is a disaster for shamrock rovers. a judicial review can only be granted on a point of law so now its off to the high court. if it goes on the high court list (it may go to the commercial court which is quicker) it could be well into next year before it comes up. then appeals to the supreme court.... have we quit yet? had the result gone rovers way today then it was over they had won and td had no where to go.... so now hopefully some compromise can be worked out so that everyone gets something